Chapter 852 - Unacceptable
'Centaurs.'
Half-human, half-horse.
Their lower body was like that of a horse, and their upper body resembled that of a human, but…
'Because they are monsters, their eyes are black, and the texture of their skin, while not ironclad, is quite hard.'
He had fought them before.
Had they occupied the plains in front of the southern forest of the Border Guard?
His memory was hazy.
Hadn't all sorts of things happened in the meantime?
No matter how good his memory was, it was something he could have forgotten.
That didn't mean he had forgotten everything.
Enkrid searched his memory.
'A General-type Colony.'
The movement of the one who had swung a glaive came to mind.
At the same time, he also remembered that it had led its pack and used tactics.
It was called the three-wave formation.
The first wave draws attention, the second wave delivers a blow, and the third wave destroys.
It was simple, but a good tactic to use if one had a clear advantage in strength.
'I also overcame the killing intent shown by the monster at that time.'
He had blocked the monster's killing intent, which was similar to a knight's intimidation, with refusal.
As he gathered the scattered pieces, memories came back one by one.
Some were clear, and some were hazy.
For example, even if he had forgotten the names of the people he had seen then, he had not forgotten the battle situation or what he had learned and mastered at that time.
"They're different from before," Enkrid said.
There was no killing intent, and they showed no aggression.
If the General-type Colony he had fought before was a tank that came straight in, this opponent was like a nimble light infantryman with cunning precision.
"I feel bad every time I see those bastards," Dunbakel also muttered.
At that time, when fighting the General-type Colony, had Dunbakel acted as bait for the centaur pack and fled into the forest?
"It's time to pay them back for what they did then, Guardian of the Stench," Rem teased Dunbakel.
The creatures came running and shot bone arrows, but no one was flustered.
There was no one here who would be hit by such an attack.
Ragna, with his eyes half-closed, got back on his horse.
"They're being annoying," was all he said.
It would be a headache to chase them.
In fact, they had already turned into dots and had fled so far that even a knight's vision could not follow them.
A few horses pawed the ground and snorted nervously, but when Weird Eyes neighed a few times, they all quieted down.
"Shall we give chase?"
Ropord asked.
It would be difficult to chase them with the horse he was on, but if he could just narrow the distance to some extent, he could jump off his horse and close the distance on his own two feet.
Of course, he said it knowing that he wouldn't really be sent.
This was, in a way, something that had come out of the position Ropord held in the knight order.
He always took on the miscellaneous tasks.
"It's impossible," Enkrid said, gauging the speed at which the centaur pack was moving.
A knight's strength could overwhelm a horse in a short-distance race, but the monster he had just seen was fast even considering that.
Could Ropord chase them with the horse he was on now?
It was out of the question.
"That's true," Ropord also affirmed and nodded.
He had said it knowing it was impossible.
He had said it with the intention of making everyone aware.
That's why it was a miscellaneous task.
"This bastard always says useless things. We all know without you running your mouth, you goody-two-shoes," Fel sneered.
"How many times have I told you that such conversations are necessary to prevent the group's opinion from being scattered? An uncountable number of times. That's why soldiers don't gather under you. Your ugly face is also part of the reason to be fair."
Click.
Fel undid the clasp of his sword.
Was it time to put a few scars on that bastard's face?
Ropord's eyes also narrowed.
Wouldn't there be no problem on the southern front without the guy who picks a fight at every opportunity?
It wouldn't be a bad idea to cut him somewhere and leave him behind.
"You bastards, we're busy. If you're going to fight, go fight over there," Rem stopped the two.
It was a different method from Enkrid's, but in any case, the two stopped.
When a brutish savage glares at you as if he's about to split your head with an axe, the will to fight tends to fade.
The party set off again.
They moved forward.
The centaur pack hit and ran, and he had thought that was all there was to it.
Enkrid and a few others had wondered if it was okay to leave them be, but they had agreed with what Luagarne had said next to them.
"It's easier to catch a group like that with numbers. A part of the standing army can deploy and chase them as if surrounding them."
They were an annoying opponent to chase with a small elite.
It wasn't that they couldn't be dealt with if they put their minds to it, but it was a waste of time.
Enkrid saw a certain intention in the arrows the creatures had shot.
Poison, distance, arrows.
Putting the three elements together, he thought he could vaguely understand their intention.
As they were finishing their preparations and moving forward, the centaur pack appeared again.
"Look at this," the corners of Rem's lips rose.
It meant the situation was unpleasant.
"Hoho, it seems the Lord wants to play at war."
If he sent the centaur unit to the heavens, the Lord would split them in half and have fun playing with them.
Of course, he didn't know if God really wanted that, but Audin originally believed that all things were within God's will.
To him, they were God's toys.
"Sister Theresa, let's prepare."
"Yes."
The bear-beastkin siblings stop, holding their reins.
Everyone did so.
They stopped and waited for the monster pack's attack.
This time, if they closed the distance, they would crush them in an instant.
The hearts of the Madmen Knight Order became one.
Shushushushushuk.
Bone arrows fly in.
Arrows shot from a distance.
If they get a little closer than this, we chase.
Enkrid thought.
The centaur pack, as if mocking them, accelerated, shot arrows while running, and then veered off and fled.
This was hard to chase.
'Can't catch them.'
They were fast.
Three or four times faster than a warhorse running at full speed, even one called a fine steed.
If only the distance could be closed, most of the knight order would face the monster at a distance where their weapons could reach, but…
'It doesn't seem like they'll give us the distance.'
That's how Enkrid saw it.
And so it went for three days.
Rem had said that they were just waiting for the party to get tired, and Luagarne was lost in thought, rolling her eyes.
The creatures regularly shot arrows and fled at morning, noon, and evening.
The party's travel speed had become terribly slow.
'A monster that has survived in the demon realm undergoes a singularity.'
It was something he had learned in the Thousand Stones, the city now renamed Oara.
The ghoul Jericks was a monster that had learned by watching human techniques.
'Humans learned intimidation by watching a monster's killing intent.'
The beginning of intimidation was imitating a monster's killing intent, and the beginning of Will was developed by watching a monster's large body produce an unbelievable amount of power.
It was knowledge gained from a conversation with the Empire's knight, Balmung.
And Balmung had also said this.
"Just as humans steal and learn a monster's techniques, I believe the time has come for monsters to learn the human system. We have learned what we need to learn from each other."
Then, had the monster shooting arrows from afar also learned the strategy and tactics shown by an intelligent being?
"That's right," Luagarne said when he told her, nodding her head.
"If we leave them be, we'll arrive not just after the southern battle is over, but in twenty-five years. I'll take care of it," Rem, a born hunter, said.
He chased the centaur pack.
Rem, who had set out in the middle of the night, returned in the morning.
There was no result.
"These bastards have sentries posted from far away?"
The conditions were bad in many ways.
If this were a forest, it would be easy to approach.
But this was a wide-open plain.
It was impossible to approach secretly when dozens of monsters were looking left and right.
"Should we have brought the stray cat?" Rem spat out such words.
"Instead, you have me, Dunbakel."
In the east, hunting is a daily routine.
Especially a game of tag with monsters is even more frequent.
"I will go."
No one stopped her.
Dunbakel returned in less than half a day.
"They shoot an arrow and run before I get close?"
"Commander, that one seems to have gotten dumber after coming back from the east," Rem said, shaking his head.
Dunbakel's sense of smell is excellent.
It is special even among beastkin.
However, in a wide field where they can clearly see each other, there is no use for her sense of smell.
It is good for chasing one who is hiding or running away, but secretly approaching is not her specialty.
The opponent was not hiding, but using its feet to keep a distance and shoot arrows.
Of course, Dunbakel also had a thought.
'I think I can take them if I use my beast transformation.'
Her beast transformation had developed and changed in the east.
If she ran with her second transformation…
'I can catch them.'
However, the creatures didn't give her that kind of distance at all.
And then they came back and shot arrows.
Shushushushuk.
T-t-tak.
Rem tied a string to his throwing axe and swung it around.
It became a roof that covered the heads of the entire party and deflected the incoming arrows.
A few pierced through the gaps, but Luagarne deflected them with her whip.
A threat?
Not at all.
However, their feet were tied.
No one would be hit by an arrow, not even by mistake, but they were poison-tipped arrows.
Even a graze on a horse would become a burden.
The gear on the saddles would have to be carried by the people, and their pace would also slow down.
The south is far.
It's not that they can't go on their own two feet, but it would be a foregone conclusion that their arrival would be delayed.
Should they leave all their camping gear?
Enkrid thought for a moment.
"If it were me, I would split the party," Luagarne offered a realistic piece of advice.
What should he say?
They were a group he could easily grab by the neck and kill if they just came close, but there was no way to get to them.
As Luagarne had said, if they split the party and chased them out of the plains, they could be caught.
'We'd probably need three people.'
Should they do that?
It was obvious what the opponent wanted.
If the monsters had learned strategy and what they wanted was to tie their feet, wasn't this just doing what they wanted?
'What about just ignoring them and moving?'
It was possible if they abandoned the horses and moved, but…
Heeeeeigh.
As he was thinking, Weird Eyes pushed Enkrid's back.
When he turned around, Weird Eyes' gaze was menacing as it pushed its head forward.
Should it be called killing intent and intimidation?
What had this wild horse been doing while Enkrid had been repeating today and cutting down Beelrog?
Heeeeeigh.
He doesn't know.
But this horse, too, must not have been idly grazing.
Weird Eyes was that kind of friend.
"Yes, Indomitable. Do you have something to say?" Enkrid called him by the name he had given him for the first time in a long time.
Weird Eyes, though a horse, frowned.
Its expression was as alive as a human's.
A face that said, 'what kind of nonsense is this now?'
Enkrid pretended not to see.
He had learned this kind of shamelessness long ago in his mercenary days.
What was the name of the mercenary captain who had taught him this?
Tom?
Something like that.
It might have been longer.
The memory was hazy because it had been so long ago.
"Yes, what?"
Hngh.
Enkrid could communicate with Weird Eyes.
But it was impossible to have a detailed conversation and discuss strategy. No matter how amazing Weird Eyes was, it did not speak a language.
But here, there was a race that could read the minds of humans, giants, elves, witches, and beasts. To a Dragonkin, language is a secondary element.
"It says to get on its back."
"Hmm?"
"It says it will catch them."
The Dragonkin had become interested in the wild horse that followed Enkrid.
From that horse, will and passion were surging like crazy.
What was it that filled its inner self?
The Dragonkin read Weird Eyes' mind in detail.
Faster than me?
The wild horse, which had lived its life running through rough fields and mountain ranges, stone paths, mud, and rocky mountains, does not tolerate something faster than itself.
Pfrrrk.
Weird Eyes snorted.
The will contained within was clear.
Enkrid also accurately perceived that will.
There was no luggage on Weird Eyes' back.
He had no intention of puting any there in the first place, but Weird Eyes would not let luggage be placed on its back anyway.
Instead, Enkrid put on his backpack and entrusted the other luggage to his party.
Enkrid untied his backpack and threw it to Fel.
"Hold this."
Then he got on Weird Eyes' back.
The heat he felt as soon as he got on.
The dark red bruise on Patchy Eye's back had deepened, and its entire body was filled with heat.
"So you're saying there's no horse faster than you, is that it?"
Enkrid asked.
Weird Eyes answered by raising its two front hooves high.
HIIIIIIIIIGH!
"That's right," the Dragonkin added a supplementary explanation.
Just then, the centaur pack shot arrows from far away.
Poison-tipped bone arrows, a monster pack that had learned the human system and tactics.
Towards them, a wild horse with different colored eyes, a horse that had overcome the blood of a monster, charged, carrying the Beelrog Slayer on its back.
***
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